tfilm78
This was probably a different sequel than people expected. The sequel they expected was probably Return to Lonesome Dove. Why? Because Return to Lonesome Dove dealt with the threads left hanging by the original Lonesome Dove, mainly Call's relationship with Newt. I also dealt with the ranch set up in Montana. It's understandable that people would have expected that. But Return to Lonesome Dove was in many ways just a rehash. Robert Duvall is replaced by William Petersen, Danny Glover by Lou Gossett Jr., and Frederic Forrest with Dennis Haysbert. They are simply replacement characters. Once again, there's a cattle drive. It deals with Newt and Call's relationship, but thing brings in another paternity case. It just goes to prove that Lonesome Dove brought those story lines to their natural, if not their emotionally satisfying, conclusion. Newt and Call both know the truth, even if they can't admit it to each other. Without knowing for sure whether Call intends to return to Montana, we're left with the feeling that Newt has to make his own way in the world, and has reached a point where he's ready too. The other supporting characters don't really need to some back, as they were ranch hands, not major characters Given that, I wasn't disappointed not to see Newt or many other characters return when I saw the sequel or read the book. Though I was disappointed that McMurtry felt he had to kill off Newt. And it makes sense that McMurtry, who is from Texas, would want to maintain a connection to Texas rather than move the entire story up to Montana.The deaths of Gus, Jake and Deets leaves only two Rangers alive: Call and Pea-Eye. The two of them are very similar in a way. Pea-Eye is task-oriented, like Call, not a joker like Gus, so that makes an interesting dynamic to explore. It's also a good way to show a contrast between them, which is why Lorena returns. Call had a chance to have a family with Maggie, a whore, but he turned his back on it. Pea-Eye, on the other hand, pursues that relationship and starts a family.Though it is a sequel to Lonesome Dove, viewers should brace themselves for what is, in all other respects, a completely different movie. Were it not for the history that Call and the Parkers have, this could have been a story completely separate from the Lonesome Dove series. This, like the prequels, is a story were the work of a Texas Ranger takes center stage. You see Call and Parker in action, and you also see the pursuit from his quarry's point of view, and that of his mother, who has lost so much of her family to the Rangers. Unlike Lonesome Dove, which had a romantic sense of adventure, this film shows the harm that their work sometimes causes. It also shows the affect of civilization on the Old West. No date is specified, but this appears to be set in the late 19th or early 20th century, in which the Texas Rangers, and Call in particular, are becoming obsolete. As Woodrow and Pea Eye show, however, they still have work to do, and do it well. It's not quite the film that Lonesome Dove was, which had a great mixture of romance, darkness, adventure and excitement--it's a much darker film--but still worth a look.Oh, and to correct one of the other reviews. Robert Duvall played Gus before, not Call. Tommy Lee Jones played Call, who is played here by James Garner. And there are two other constants: Lorena; played in Lonesome Dove by Diane Lane and here by Sissy Spacek; and Pea Eye Parker; played in Lonesome Dove by Tim Scott, and here by Sam Shepard. It took me a while to realize that too, since they look so different. But her mention of Blue Duck and her whoring life is enough to connect the dots, and Sam Shepard actually plays Pea Eye as a man with some intelligence though not much formal education, rather than the simpleton that we got from Tim Scott. A nice improvement, I think. He seems a more competent Ranger. It's also a shame that Tommy Lee Jones never returned to the role of Woodrow Call, though maybe at the age Call is in this story, it wouldn't have made sense. I must say Garner and Shepard both appear younger, mainly since their hair has turned grey from white.
jeanie-newlife
Sorry, this movie abandoned the viewers. Loose ends? How many were there? Too many to count. I watched Lonesome Dove, too, and didn't really have any expectations for this movie, but I'd have to say it wasn't about the thread between movies or characters; how much Garner was like Jones, etc. It was, for me, about the lack of point of view. There are so many threads that do not get drawn together in a good way. Who really is the narrator? Why was Hardin's character in the movie? Why don't we see or learn more about Pea Eye whose close relationship with Call is given to us at the beginning? Why the guy who burns people down? So much time was spent on extraneous characters who perhaps in the book are interesting to the story but in a screen play become burdensome to the main story. I wished for more clarity, more development of the main characters. And, the movie did not really take place on The Street of Laredo.
